Statement and Bio

Rick Jones – Artist Statement – October 2010

In my ongoing painting practice, both resemblance and abstraction create a feedback loop of input and output of gestural traces.  I will typically paint or sketch something intuitively that may resemble something in the real world, which will then inform some elaboration or continuation of that idea, but still more or less within my abstract vocabulary. Conversely, an experience of a real-world form will form the basis of, or act as a template for, an abstract idea upon which I can improvise.

These operations, among others, constantly transmit ideas in a network of actions which I diligently monitor for consistency within both a set of aesthetic and subjective parameters and a set of requirements for philosophical rigor.

There are no specific aesthetic trajectories to which I adhere while planning or executing a painting or drawing, nor an over-arching one for my entire body of work, rather any consistencies across my work result from common points of origin and frameworks of both life experience and painting methods.  The only exception is that I consciously avoid making any forms which can be mistaken for resembling objects of specific size, which would cut short the potential for the scale of the piece to enable the formal elements to have their full psychological impact.  These formal points of origin include certain types of forms in run across in the real world, shapes and lines which are neither strictly geometric or patterns nor are they unstructured or totally without resemblance.

The subjective instigations of my paintings and drawings are the paradoxes and ironies of living in place which is both over-developed with cheap, ugly suburbs and condominiums, but in which a strange type of beauty and superficial happiness still exist.  Having grown up in Central Florida, the beaches, swamps and open spaces that are wild and wonderful and bright to tourists and newcomers are, to me, oversaturated and plain; a whitewash of bland Florida colors, all with a blindingly gray sheen in the imagination.

It is a paradox that I have yet to resolve: I paint in a state of ecstasy brought on by the most numbingly ugly places.

Artistic History

I was casually interested in both drawing cartoons and playing and writing music about as far back as I can remember, but in high school, I decided to fully commit to music, which gained me a scholarship at Florida State University to study composition.  I quickly discovered that the culture of music school was not for me, and after taking a year off to figure out my life I decided that making art offered the path of least resistance, academically anyway.

I did a lot of everything in art school: painting, performance, drawing, printmaking, installation, interactive art (and my graduation show was comprised entirely of sculpture).  Without the resources of a university, the motivations of colleagues, money or free time, sculpture became impossible for me; I didn’t make any art at all for the next three years.

Working as a sales associate at Sam Flax Art and Design Supplies in Orlando, FL made me turn the corner and start getting serious about painting.  I concentrated on further educating myself in abstract painting and drawing and finally mounted an exhibition in September 2005 at the invitation of Bret Bennett, the owner of Stardust Video and Coffee.  Aided by the donation of 50% of its proceeds to the Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund, I sold eleven of the twelve pieces in that show, boosting my motivation to continue painting, and occasionally exhibiting and selling locally while holding various day jobs.